1. Field of the Invention
In general, the present invention relates to telephone call processing systems, and more particularly to techniques for processing calls based on subscriber profile information.
2. Statement of Related Art
Recent advances in telecommunications technology have led to a significant increase in the variety of telephone services that are now available to consumers. Service providers now offer a variety of services to their subscribers such as call forwarding, call rejection, call waiting, caller ID display, sequence calling, remote access, call redirection, call answer, ring again, charging and privilege options, and the like. These services have greatly enhanced the utility and versatility of telephone systems to consumers. To accommodate this ever increasing array of telephone services, a telephone system may utilize a subscriber profile. A subscriber profile, more particularly, is a database record containing information about how the service is to be performed for a particular subscriber. An example of the use of a subscriber profile is the personal telephone number service described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,440,620, issued on Aug. 8, 1995, entitled xe2x80x9cTelecommunications System Subscriber Profile Updatingxe2x80x9d. As described in that patent, a caller who has dialed the personal, e.g., xe2x80x9c700 area codexe2x80x9d, telephone number of a subscriber to the service is connected to a computer-based service adjunct which, upon answering the call, prompts the caller for a so-called xe2x80x9ccaller identification numberxe2x80x9d (caller ID). Upon receiving the caller identification number from the caller, such as via telephone push-button input, the system consults a subscriber profile associated with the called personal telephone number to determine whether the caller identification number is valid and, if it is, how the call is to be treated. As examples of various call treatments, the profile may indicate that, upon receiving a particular caller identification number, the call is to be forwarded to the subscriber""s home telephone number, to some other subscriber-defined call forwarding telephone number, to a voice messaging system, or to a specified succession of these.
However, telephone systems presently provide subscriber profiling only on a piecemeal basis for a limited number of services. In addition, the rapid development of subscriber services has led to a growing potential for service conflicts between a calling party and a called party who both subscribe to a unique set of services. Such service conflicts, commonly known as feature interactions, are problems which occur when telephone services conflict with each other, when telephony services are ambiguous, or when there is contention for a resource. Petri Dini. et al. in xe2x80x9cFeature Interactions in Telecommunication Networks IVxe2x80x9d (1997) provide a variety of solutions to this problem, however, the solutions treat the symptoms of the problem and none attempt to resolve the problem itself. Feature interactions may also occur between the services offered to an individual subscriber.
A feature interaction may occur, for example, in the case where a subscriber subscribes to selective call forwarding (SCF) and selective call rejection (SCR). SCF allows the subscriber to forward incoming calls to different locations depending upon the telephone number of the calling party. SCR allows the subscriber to not accept calls depending upon the telephone number of the calling party. Under present systems, SCF and SCR are maintained as separate lists of directory numbers. When a call is placed, a central office switch of the called party compares the calling party""s directory number to the SCF and SCR lists of directory numbers. If the number is listed under SCF, the call is forwarded as prescribed. If the number is listed under the SCR list, the call is rejected and the calling party is notified that the call will not be connected. While the original set of independent SCR and SCF lists may not contain any conflicts, as these lists are subsequently updated, especially by the subscriber, conflicts may arise. A feature interaction may therefore occur between SCR and SCF in the case where the calling party""s directory number is listed under both SCR and SCF. In such a situation, it is unclear whether the call should be forwarded or whether the call should be rejected. Since the SCF and the SCR lists are compared sequentially, the call will likely be handled according to the list that is compared first. Thus, if the central office switch compares the SCR list first, the call will be rejected even though the directory number is also listed in the SCF list.
In addition to the problem of service conflicts, present telephone systems often only provide the subscriber services for one party, either the calling party or the called party, and do not provide subscriber services for the other party.
In addition to the above-mentioned problems, present telephone systems are also relatively inefficient in the processing of calls according to subscriber profiles. Each subscriber service requires piecemeal processing regardless of whether certain services are related. Generally, the telephone system must individually address each specific subscriber service and determine whether the party has subscribed to that particular subscriber service, as described in the example of SCF and SCR services. Each subscribed service is provided in a list of checks for that subscriber. Thus, each time a new service is implemented, additional checks must be added to the list of checks to provide these new services to the subscriber. The placement of the checks in the list determines how the new services interact with existing services. As the number and complexity of subscriber services increase, the complexity and inefficiencies of present call handling systems similarly increase (in addition to the greater risk of feature interactions).
Present telephone systems also provide limited information to the called party about the calling party. When a call is placed to the called party, the called party may ascertain at most the telephone number and name of the calling party (the caller ID service). Having additional information about the calling party may provide added benefit for processing the call according to the preferences of the called party. For example, the called party may be a customer service line for an international business of which the calling party is a customer. The called party may wish to handle the call differently depending upon the language preference of the calling party. Currently, the called party may presume a language preference based upon the telephone number of the calling party; however, this is not guaranteed.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide subscriber services to both the calling party and the called party during a call.
It is another object of the present invention to resolve feature interactions when providing subscriber services to the calling and called party.
It is yet another object of the invention is to provide a comprehensive subscriber profile that incorporates all of the subscriber services and preferences of a subscriber.
Yet another object of the invention is to resolve feature interactions between services subscribed by an individual subscriber.
Still another object is to provide an efficient call processing system.
Another object is to provide timely availability of newer subscriber services.
In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, a call processing system is provided for processing a telephone call from a calling party to a called party. The system includes subscriber profiles for the both the called and calling parties, a call behavior module, a subscriber profile module, and end user access modules for the calling party and the called party. The subscriber profiles, which reside locally or in one or more remote databases, comprehensively maintain a list of the subscribed service options and preferences of the called and calling parties. Profiles can be provided for an individual subscriber and/or for a group of subscribers. The call behavior module processes the telephone call in accordance with the subscriber service options and preferences of the called party and the calling party as provided in the subscriber profiles. The end user access module recognizes the different supervisory signals received from the called party and the calling party based on the signaling protocols of the called party channel and the calling party channel, as well as the preferences of the called party and the calling party, and passes these control signals to the call behavior module for processing. When instructed by the call behavior module, the end user access module also generates the appropriate supervisory signals to be sent to the called party and the calling party based on the signaling protocols of the called party channel and the calling party channel, as well as the preferences of the called party and the calling party. The subscriber profile module obtains profile information of the called party and the calling party from the applicable individual and group profiles and provides this information to the call behavior module and the end user access module. Efficient call processing is thereby achieved in accordance with the subscriber services and preferences of both the calling and called parties.